


a better fate than wisdom

by arete (aurai)



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: F/F, So so so much, i love him right now, i love them, im so glad that griffin brought them back, its not even angst tho, just hurley being conflicted about her job vs her love, just intense first love, no angst in this one guys, okay i lied theres a tiny bit of angst, the usual, wink - Freeform, you know
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-19
Updated: 2017-08-04
Packaged: 2018-12-04 01:02:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11544180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aurai/pseuds/arete
Summary: the raven meets hurley. then she meets the ram. it takes a while to put two and two together.





	1. first meetings

_thump._

 

sloane blinks, eyes narrowed as she focuses ahead of her. dust flies and she barely hears the sounds of crashing battlewagons around her.

 

_thump._

 

she has grown used to seeing through the slits of her mask. it allows her to shut out everything but the race. the track in front of her, the obstacles to evade, to outfly. her own heartbeat shocking through her body in bullet time.

 

_thump._

 

she’s so close. she’s come so far since she’d started racing. she sees her destination and her journey in the same blink, the same breath of air. sloane can’t see anything but the finish line, can see everything in the universe down to the molecule.

 

_thump._

  
  


 

 

The sound rushes back as Sloane cuts through the ribbon, winning yet another wagon race. She’s lost count of how many - only that every time, the adrenaline pumps faster and the euphoria only seems to become greater. The buzz used to last her for months. Now, she can’t go a week without winning a race. She gets anxious, reckless, steals less, gets caught more.

 

 _Gets caught more._ As Sloane’s wagon skids to a halt, she glances out over the crowd. Perhaps her captor has come to watch. Sloane had promised to dedicate the win to her.

 

_you’re in trouublee_

 

_sloane hadn’t realized anyone else was near - that’s what scared her more than anything. she turned to see a small halfling woman, with a grin that could cut diamond and arms that looked like they could snap sloane in half without really trying. sloane immediately checked that her mask was in place - and of course it wasn’t only to hide the heat spreading across her cheeks._

 

_it was a moment before she responded. she hated herself for responding at all. normal sloane would have been long gone. a sloane that was sensible wouldn’t have let anyone, let alone a member of the guard, get so close. this sloane… wasn’t sensible._

 

_i might be_

 

Sloane finds Hurley’s eyes in the crowd, wide and shocked and somehow, breathless. She lets a small smile slip. She kisses her fist and raises it to the crowd. Hurley blinks as the people around her erupt in jubilant screams. She flushes. She doesn’t look away.

 

That’s what Sloane likes about her. She doesn’t look away, doesn’t stand down. She’ll challenge you even when she’s not confident. She’s bold and soft and impulsive and bashful all at once. She’s too curious for her own good.

  


 

 

 

_thump._

 

hurley gasps. she screams - not in fear, but in exhilaration. finally, she whispers, _finally._ this is what she’s been missing.

 

_thump._

 

she’s not good enough, not fast enough, she’s too clumsy. it’s her first race and her battlewagon is too hastily put together. she makes it far enough to see the raven lap her before she’s crashing to the ground, face down in the dirt and the dust.

 

_thump._

 

she’s smiling even as she spits out a tooth, even as she watches the other racers pass her by, jeering. she’s smiling even as she holds her cracked mask over her face. she’s smiling as the raven glides through the finish, miles ahead of the others. her heart pounds in her chest and she smiles.

 

_thump._

  


 

 

 

Hurley limps towards the end of the race gathering with the few small salvageable pieces of her wagon in her arms. The other racers are gathered there, some chatting tersely, some barely refraining from dissolving into a brawl. The Raven, as usual, stands off by her battlewagon, avoiding all contact with others. She is slim, tall, graceful, powerful, _awesome_. Hurley can’t take her eyes off of her even as she walks.

 

The Raven notices. She notices Hurley. She notices the Ram. She smiles.

 

_i might be_

 

_the raven is tensed, on the edge of a precipice. hurley can see it in her eyes. she’s one moment away from running and one moment away from staying forever. she takes a breath, chest heaving with it. heavy with it all. the confusion, the turmoil - stay or go? stay or go?_

 

_hurley chews her lip, chooses her words carefully. one more moment will decide whether the raven will stay in her life or leave it for good. hurley desperately hopes she’ll stay._

 

_well that’s good, because i’m looking for a partner too._

 

Something, _something_ within Hurley possesses her to make her way towards the Raven. Her heart flutters somewhere near her gut and she swallows air. The Raven takes notice, gains interest, as she approaches. Her posture changes. The air around them changes. Hurley changes.

 

She doesn’t change her mind.

 

You’re really good out there, she says. Really good. Like nothing I’ve seen before.

 

The Raven smirks. You’re not too bad yourself, for a newbie. Especially a solo newbie. I’d say dumb, but I think you knew you could hold your own.

 

Hurley takes a breath.

 

Don’t know if I can pull it off again, though. You… you happen to be looking for a partner?


	2. realizations

Hurley feels conflicted.

 

One one hand, she’s felt better in the past few weeks than she ever has in her entire life. She feels like she can finally be herself. The Raven has freed her - unfortunately, she’s also put Hurley into quite a bind.

 

Hurley is the main officer on the Raven case. It’s her job to keep Captain Bane updated on her progress - and before she became the Raven’s partner, she had been extremely close to catching her. Hurley didn’t know what to do. As she’d raced with Raven, she’d gotten to know her…

 

_ Raven, Ram said, why do you steal? _

 

_ Raven turned away for a moment, lifted her mask and wiped her forehead free from sweat. Ram struggled not to strain to see her face. When Raven turned back, Ram wondered if she could see the desperate, searching look on Ram’s face. She was smiling. _

 

_ You didn’t think I kept it all for myself, did you? she asked, her smooth, honey slow voice rumbling low in the Ram’s own chest. Ram took in a breath. _

 

_ I give most of it to kids, families who can’t afford things they need. Raven settled herself on the back of their battlewagon, above where Ram was observing by the rear wheel.  _

 

_ I keep what I need for myself, and I only steal from people who can afford to lose it. More than afford, Raven says, her face going dark. The class system in this city is absurd. Someone needs to do something. So I do. _

 

_ Ram’s breath is long gone. Lost to the wind, several miles away by now. She’s never heard anything more perfect. She’s never heard anything that has challenged her moral code so much. _

 

_ Stealing is wrong, her brain says. Battle wagon racing is illegal. _

 

_ This is what an uncorrupted world looks like, her heart replies. And battle wagon racing is fucking fun, what are you talking about. _

 

_ You’ve got a point, brain admits. _

  
  
  
  
  


 

 

 

Sloane feels conflicted.

 

The Ram is an enticing mystery, waiting to be unwrapped layer by layer, petal by petal. Sloane falls deeper into her vines every moment they’re together. But she also is caught up in another web - the web of Lieutenant Hurley. Whom she hasn’t seen for two weeks.

 

It’s a good thing, she says to herself. It’s a good thing they haven’t met. Sloane is getting better at avoiding her, getting better at surviving. The farther away they remain, the better off she’ll be.

 

But Hurley had her own charming wit, charging into things without thinking, or perhaps with thinking and without caring. She was sweet and interesting - and obviously interested in the Raven. In ways… other than arresting her.

 

The Ram, on the other hand…

 

_ Raven, Ram says, why do you steal? _

 

_ Sloane sees the confusion in Ram’s eyes. She takes a breath, takes a moment to wipe her sticky forehead. The Ram is desperate for an answer, desperate to know the Raven for who she really is. She’s so much more raw and open than Hurley. Sloane is almost as curious about her as she is about the Raven. _

 

_ She explains. She tells the Ram why she does what she does. The skin of her leg brushes against Ram’s shoulder a few times as she speaks, and she isn’t certain whether or not to pull away before Ram raises her hand to lazily trace her fingers along Sloane’s shin. _

 

_ As she finishes speaking, Sloane catches the Ram’s shining eyes - wide and shocked and somehow, breathless. And as she hops down from the back of the battle wagon, as the Ram tracks her movements, mirroring them with her own, as Sloane reaches out and wraps a finger in the Ram’s curls, as their lips meet - Sloane realizes that the Ram  _ is  _ Hurley, that she wants to learn about Sloane and how she works, she wants to be convinced not to arrest her - _

 

_ Their lips meet and its like galaxies colliding. All at once the tension that has been building is blooming, blooming in the heart and the mind and the gut of the both of them. Hurley is warm, and soft, and their masks fall to the ground with resounding clunks, forgotten. Sloane breathes the very same breath that Hurley just let escape and she opens her eyes. _

 

_ Hi, she says. I’m Sloane. _

 

_ Hi Sloane, Hurley responds shyly, almost embarrassed. I’m Hurley - though, I guess you know that - _

 

_ Sloane pulls her close again, and presses her small, warm body back against the battle wagon. _


End file.
